![]() (Glover revealed to Billboard that he became a dad this year.) The breezy California is a sparkling palate cleanser after the towering funk anthem Redbone (one of the year's best songs), and Baby Boy feels achingly personal. The symphonic, stripped-down Stand Tall is genuinely inspiring, despite its overuse of clichéd platitudes. While much of the album feels like a reflection of the sort of rambling, stream-of-consciousness ideas Glover puts out in his interviews, the more soulful second half fares better. ![]() Whether he's slyly commenting on the music industry, racism or class on the latter ("We're eating you for profit / there is no way to stop it") is anybody's guess. Spanning 11 songs and nearly 50 minutes, Awaken starts like a bad trip, as Gambino literally screams about love on the aggressive rock opener Me and Your Mama, before warning of the Boogieman and Zombies over a muddled mix of hand claps, shrieks and guitar licks. ![]() Think a slightly more successful stab at psychedelic rock than Kid Cudi, who sharply pivoted away from hip hop on his 2013 experiment Indicud. Here, Gambino abandons rapping altogether in favor of washed-out guitars, tribal beats and distorted, often-unintelligible verses. Which brings us to his third studio album, Awaken, My Love! (**1/2 out of four), which at its best, is ground-breaking, genre-defying music for the soul, and at its worst, sounds like the teenage stoner down the block who just discovered his dad’s Jimi Hendrix collection. After appearing in bit roles in last year's Magic Mike XXL and The Martian, Glover emerged as a creative force in 2016: writing, producing and starring in FX's critical darling Atlanta, and joining the upcoming young Han Solo movie as Star Wars' Lando Calrissian.Īmidst all of that, the versatile actor has released two hip-hop albums under the stage name Childish Gambino, starting with his witty 2011 breakout Camp and earning a Grammy nomination for his audacious, weightier follow-up Because the Internet. ![]() Once a writer on NBC’s 30 Rock, the 33-year-old became a breakout character on the network's since-canceled cult sitcom Community, playing affable nerd Troy Barnes. Donald Glover has come a long way since his study-room days. ![]()
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